Supported with public funding by Arts Council England. Supported by Norfolk County Council

In this post I want to place a focus on the poetry featured in our exhibition in King’s Lynn. 60 of the over 100 poems written throughout our 15 month collaboration were featured in the exhibition. We managed to get a broad range of the poetry read out loud across the 3 days. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get audios of everything, but we do have some great moments we’d like to share, particularly with attendees reading the transformers’ poetry aloud, sometimes not having read poetry for years.

Here’s an audio of one lady doing exactly that- amazing…:

The engagement with the spoken word was impressive across the whole weekend, whether child or adult. Even people who came in and said ‘poetry wasn’t their thing’ seemed to soon change their minds when they heard some of the transformers read their poetry out loud. Karin read her Book 13 poem Hecuba’s Pain to a lady who said she didn’t ‘get’ poetry. However, as soon as she engaged with the emotion behind the words of Karin’s poem and responded to Karin’s interpretation she changed her mind. She is now going to give it a go! Here’s the reading that altered her perception.

I also came across another interesting prejudice which was that poetry is an inferior form to prose. I had a energetic debate with a man who could not see the purpose of it… I fought poetry’s corner, and this encounter has firmed up my intention to try and shake-up a bit how our attendees in future projects meet what we create….Perhaps even challenging the idea of the word ‘exhibition’ and all that the word intimates. Anyway, that’s another story….

Here below, is a visual, poetry foam board extravaganza for you. Showing the variety of forms, styles and themes, and an idea of the journey they made from box to stand (click to enlarge the pictures):

The foam boards await….

The foam boards looking glorious with their hooks

The poets’ scroll down banner

Poet Transformer Karin Heyer with one of her poetry foamboards

Book 5, Dew Point by Eleanor Perry and painting by Hugo Smith Amor Amar

Book 6 Web of Words by Richard Biddle,

Book 10 ft Wild Vows by Nat Hall, Cyparrissus by Adam Wimbush and That Loser Pygmalion by Greg Mackie

Book 11 How to kill Orpheus by Rebecca Audra Smith

Book 12 Caenis by Rebecca Audra Smith and Caneus by Kate Garrett (2 sides of the same coin)

Book 12, No Grounds by James Knight, Human Destructiveness Now and Thenby Karin Heyer, Painting by Ryan Atkins- Achilles and Cycnus

Book 12 House of Rumour by Eleanor Perry

Book 15 Veggie by Carol Robson,

Book 15 Pebbles Don’t Lie by Nat Hall, Book 15

There are more images to come as the pictures roll in…. We’ll also do a special on the art from the exhibition and on the impact of the Transformers coming together in real time.

To leave you. Here’s an audio of Adam Wimbush’s poem from Book 15, Epilogue. Summing up, I think, what Transformations has been all about:

Thanks so much for your interest!

All good wishes,

Nicky

P.S. Big thanks to Transformer Gill Offley who took so many of these great photos!

I haven’t put out an ArtiPeeps Update for a while because I’ve been immersed in all things Transformations. However, I received very good news this week that the grant bid I put in to The Arts Council, England has been successful and because of that too we now have match funding from Norfolk County Council who are helping towards the costs of the hire Hanse House.

So I am honoured to say that we are now funded by:

and supported by:

The fact we have secured this support is a real testament to the talents of all those involved: The Transformers and The Code Crimson and the quality of their work. They have all contributed to the success of this application. The Arts Council grant is also particularly significant as it is public money. I don’t take this fact lightly.

I am also thrilled because it means that the sort of large-scale, collaborative projects that ArtiPeeps is providing is fundable. It is very rewarding to feel that funders have seen the artistic and creative merit in what we are trying to do. This bodes very well for our next project starting in October called The Nine Realms which will follow in a similar pattern to Transformations but will last nine months.

The exhibition is now just over a month away and thanks to our funding I can now instigate services such as the framing of the 7 pictures for the Transformers who are outside of the UK, or who can’t get to the exhibition geographically within the UK. Everything, I have to say, is feeling very real (in a good way). Printing the leaflets and posters has also had to wait because all the promotional material has to have funder logos on them. However, now we have them we’re away! The flyer and leaflet should be available next week. Watch this space….

The next few weeks will have me finishing off the soft copy book and pdf and ebook (if there is time…this might now have to be completed after the exhibition…). We’re also going to various schools in King’s Lynn to promote the exhibition and comic strip so they can take part in our schools day.

The Arts Council grant is given to projects and initiatives that show artistic excellence, and it is my intention to keep providing new, high quality and varied opportunities for creatives as we move forward and grow as an organisation.

Poems Inspired by Book 15

.Featuring:

Greg Mackie and Carol Robson

HOPE AND DEFIANCE

by Greg Mackie Book 15

Her father died down the pit,and her mother, bitter,threw plates and angry words.

This was her history –the filter through whichwe sought to understand her,and by extension, ourselves.

And though I may sit here,cynical and tired, and claim that the chains of destinyare as fragileas the chains of an aging mineshaft lift –I don’t truly believe that.

The chains of our destinywere forged with hope and defiance:we survived wars and accidents and disease,we walked on mud tracks and tarmac and the thin dust of the moon;we built a world in our image – brave and bold and beautiful and ugly and stark and cruel and tender.

And though I may sit here,cynical and tired, I look inside myselfand see the values that she passed on.

“People are good.”

“Everybody is equal.”

“Nothing is worth morethan a human life.”

There are days,everything contradicts this –

Ideas may be indestructible,but values melt in the sun,and so we encapsulate them in legends,pass them down through the generations,bestow them an eternity,in the company of men and gods and wolves and snakes.

And though I may sit here,cynical and tired, I open a book,a poem of transformations,and the very last line,the very last thought,a declaration,of hope and defiance –

“I will live!”

.

Veggie

(Pythagoras)

by Carol Robson

In thy mathematical mindthat strains beyond calculusin theorem of lifethat shall not be takenfor the sustenance of another.

All life be preciousfor blessed reincarnationfor all life’s creaturesas in human life we wishto return in form,of whatever is blessed.

We should not feast on the beastthat perchance you devoura relative or friendthat passed and returned,in true transmigration of soul.

Our perfect abstention,from feasting on another life,to only feed on mother earth’s bountythat sustains us in body and soulthat keeps us in harmony for reincarnation, for continuation of our soul transmigration.

Nat’s poem Syclla is the last poem from Book 14 as we now head into the last book of Metamorphoses and to the deification of Caesar Augustus. The last month of this season will be sprinkled with the Transformers poetry on Book 15.

Poems Inspired by Book 14

.Featuring:

Karin Heyer and James Knight

Persuasion not force

(Pomona and Vertumnus)

by Karin Heyer

Weaving, weaving story into story Pomona in her garden stood and listened. He told her that he loved her — it was in vain. She tended her garden, never any want of watering, that is how her garden grew into a magical creation of living growth and beauty. He still told her that he loved her: it was in vain! For her he changed his thought and appearance, he used all manner of persuasion, for she was his first and last love and behold a fairy-tale ends well, the dream is there, unhampered as the angels, she paid homage and listened to her first and last love.

Scylla

by James Knight

.

She movement wading moments

was as waist some forced clad of deep mountainous up in waving into mass to some gently of the kind to pool flesh top and only surged amid soft up a white

Before find through mass stuff of which gates water narrow blood clung there around orifice and close sat

On her as slime to either groin though and her side erupt forced what form with yelping shape monsters

The at power thinking opening the infinite entrails her the part smaller of sinuous waste of a figure and her itself monster

With seeking into colour wide her gigantic larger dazzled Cerberian thighs lizard space when mouths her or disclosed the full legs serpent sections sun

Worm her hideous voice peal lull Adam when jaws pause

Sir Cerberus’s seething had and would

She contents seen sweet creep stands of looking If the raging hole the soft disturb’d dogs rose trees dominant note her by eyes womb beasts

And below bubbling emerald-green sibilation kennel the spring flickering her surface and like hands yet from Adam great too there which saw lamps were still her part long bark’d truncated of a flexible and thighs the gale white howl’d

To get involved contact us via any of the comments boxes on our posts/pages or @ArtiPeeps. You would be very welcome!

Vikings Ahoy! It’s The Nine Realms!

ONGOING EPICS

THE NINE REALMS (2014-2015):
Watch this space for our next 9-month large-scale collaborative project ! Starting in the 2nd Week of October 2014. Inspired by the Norse Sagas and Norse Cosmology, Giving creative opportunities to nearly 50 creatives. We'll be combining poetry, prose, art, music and sculpting a Viking boat out of ash, Vikings Ahoy!!!

The Nine Realms Poetry Playlist

The Nine Realms Realm Music

PAST EPIC COLLABORATIONS

TRANSFORMATIONS (2013-2014)

A POETRY AND ART EPIC:

31 Creatives from all around the world and the UK showcased through 1 Contemporary Reworking of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Making the virtual real via a poetry-art exhibition held at Hanse House, Norfolk, 12-14th September 2014,

The launch of our large-scale exhibition template to be used to give creatives from all disciplines collaborative opportunities year on year.

Wisdom & Mindfulness

ArtiPeeps Videos On Vimeo

Osho: From The Book of Understanding

EXPRESS YOURSELF IN AS MANY WAYS AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT FEAR.THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR.THERE IS NOBODY WHO IS GOING TO PUNISH OR REWARD YOU. EXPRESS YOUR BEING IN ITS TRUEST FORM, IN ITS NATURAL FLOW, YOU WILL BE REWARDED IMMEDIATELY, NOT TOMORROW BUT TODAY, HERE & NOW. YOU ARE PUNISHED ONLY WHEN YOU GO AGAINST YOUR NATURE. BUT THE PUNISHMENT IS A HELP. IT IS SIMPLY AN INDICATION THAT YOU HAVE MOVED AWAY FROM NATURE, THAT YOU HAVE GONE A LITTLE ASTRAY-OFF THE ROAD-COME BACK. PUNISHMENT IS NO REVENGE.NO, PUNISHMENT IS ONLY AN EFFORT TO WAKE YOU UP: 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' . SOMETHING IS WRONG, SOMETHING IS GOING AGAINST YOURSELF. THAT'S WHY THERE IS PAIN, THERE IS ANXIETY.

EVOLUTION IS INTRINSIC TO MAN'S NATURE, EVOLUTION IS HIS VERY SOUL, AND THOSE WHO TAKE THEMSELVES FOR GRANTED REMAIN UNFULFILLED. THOSE WHO THINK THEY ARE BORN COMPLETE REMAIN UNEVOLVED. THEN THE SEED REMAINS THE SEED. IT NEVER BECOMES A TREE AND NEVER KNOWS THE JOYS OF SPRING AND THE SUNSHINE AND THE RAIN AND THE ECSTASY OF BURSTING INTO MILLIONS OF FLOWERS.